Eumelus the epic poet in his Europia, which must have described the fortunes of the Cretan Zeus, "spoke of the image of Apollo at Delphi as a pillar in the lines:—
(
Greek characters)[1]
"That we might for the god hang up a tithe and a trophy
on his holy walls and his high pillar."
In other words, at Delphi as elsewhere[2] the sacred tree was represented by a column, a fact which throws fresh light on two at least of the problems connected with the Delphic cult.
Zeus in the Libyan Oasis had an oracular oak, which in process of time withered away.[3] Q. Curtius Rufus[4] the historian, writing in the first century of our era, describes the cult-object in the Ammonium not as a sacred oak, nor even as a high pillar, but as "closely resembling an omphalos.'" I would suggest the same origin for the omphalos at Delphi, viz.: that it was the relic of a sacred stump or tree. This accords with the elongated shape that it has on certain vases.[5] It also accounts for several other peculiarities of this much-debated object. The eagles of
- ↑ Clem. Al. Strom., 1. 164. The couplet cited by Clement hardly prove- his point: but he had access to the context, which we have not. Bötticher (Baumkultus, p. 227) accepts his statement on the ground that other representas tions of Apollo as a pillar are known (ib. fig. 53 c, d, e). Apollo at Amyclæ "resembled a bronze pillar" (Paus., 3. 19. 2).
- ↑ See e. g. A. Evans, "Mycenæan Tree and Pillar Cult," in Journ. of Hell. Stud., xxi 9 ff. Sacred oaks thus treated are described in Class. Rev., xvii., 271, 407 413 f., xviii., 85 f., 88, 370.
- ↑ Folk-lore, xv., 295, n. 216.
- ↑ Curt. 4. 7. 23, id, quod pro deo colitur, non eandem effigiem habet, quam vulgo diis artifices accommodaverunt: umbilico maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo et gemmis coagmentatus.
- ↑ E.g., Journ. of Hell. Stud., viii., 16 f., figs. 4—6, Baumeister Denkmāler, ii., 1009, fig. 1215, "in Art einer verkürzten Säule."
of oak"; but the analogy of the dry log ((Greek characters)) dedicated in the sanctuary of Apollo (Greek characters) at Sicyon (Paus., 2. 9. 7) renders it unnecessary to suppose that the bough was carved at all.
